


in the future

by Anonymous



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Gen, POV First Person, POV Second Person, Timeline S4 and after
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 01:43:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7957438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We rose, we fell, we will rise again. (Reflections and unsent communications)</p><p> </p><p>  <span class="small">[ 3. in the future <a href="http://inthefuture1.tumblr.com/post/140964933528">i can’t see you, but I know you’re still here</a> // Fubuki // an audio recording preceded by three minutes of silence ]</span></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. in the future you will continue to shine as bright as all the stars in the sky on a clear night.

**Author's Note:**

> Short eliteshipping fics based on posts from [this blog](http://inthefuture1.tumblr.com/). If there's any you want to see, leave a comment with a link to the post and the character or combination of characters you think it fits, and I'll write it.
> 
> This chapter is set sometime in S4 and based on [this post](http://inthefuture1.tumblr.com/post/142004562037)

 

 

**in the future[you will continue to shine as bright as all the stars in the sky on a clear night](http://inthefuture1.tumblr.com/post/142004562037)**

 (Fubuki // An unsent e-mail buried under 43 unrelated drafts)

 

_From: Tenjouin Fubuki_  
_To:  
_ _Subject:_

 

Ryou,

Shou tells me your recovery is progressing well. I'm glad to hear that, although I imagine it frustrates you to be bedbound. With luck, the facilities and amenities are pleasant enough and to your liking.

Here at Academia, the alignment of the stars is shifting as the seasons pass. Are you watching the constellations change too, Ryou? When Asuka and I go down to the lighthouse, we always look up at the sky, and remember you.

Academia still remembers you, too. In the corridors and common areas, at dinner or before classes. The classmates here still call you Hell Kaiser, and follow with held breath the TV channels and the dueling journals reporting on your recovery, and talk in whispers about your duels that went down in pro circuit history.

I listen to all of that, and I wonder.

I knew you before, Ryou. I know that what makes Ryou, Ryou, is not the Cyberdark deck or the intensity you bring to every fight, but the duelist's spirit that brought you to Principal Samejima's dojo and then Academia all those years ago. That shining spirit was what led you to inherit the Cyber Style, and become Kaiser, and eventually to walk through hell and emerge alive.

My friend, I am glad that you survived.

Now that everything has come to pass, I can say with certainty that that light will never change. I know that wherever you go, you will always shine brightly at the top of the world, and illuminate a path through the darkness for those fortunate enough to know you.  (You lit the way for me once, too, and for that I will always be grateful.)

Please, Ryou, never lose that light.

When we meet again, I hope you will again be able to smile as we used to.

 

Your friend,


	2. in the future it doesn’t define me anymore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Based on [this post](http://inthefuture1.tumblr.com/post/136102522892)

**in the future[it doesn’t define me anymore](http://inthefuture1.tumblr.com/post/136102522892)**

(Yuusuke // written on the back of a napkin at a pro duelists cocktail party)

 

Eventually it becomes clear that walking into darkness is not an ending but a beginning; that there is no point in going on, and going on _is_ the point.

Many people walk into darkness. Some survive. Few last. None leave untouched.

In the face of an unchanging uncaring world, it is fashionable to reject such 'naive' things as hope and belief and perseverance, and embrace resignation and cynicism instead. Or perhaps it is thrilling to look into the dark and see it look back at you. But in that place I watched too many people drown, and this is what I believe:

Don't ever start down that path, because you may not be lucky enough to escape. You may not be fortunate enough to have friends who will brave the dark to find you, and even those who are willing may not be strong enough. In the end, there is no one who will save you, and trapped and sinking as you are, you will lose all ability to save yourself.

(Fubuki-kun, you meant well. And your feelings do reach me, and I understand and accept them.  
But, at that time—  
You wanted to save me, but even more you wanted to appease your own guilt. That is self-focused, and self-serving, and so it could not save anyone.

In the end, Yuuki Juudai is the reason I survived. He never knew me; he will never care to.

What I mean to say is: do not delude yourself that the light is looking for _you_ , specifically. It is merely incidental, and seeks its own path. So, if you are fortunate enough that it comes across you in that place, I hope you have the sense to grab on, for your own sake.)

I still want the same things as before: cessation, inexistence, annihilation. But wanting does not mean getting— and I still have many things to do, things I can only do here among the living. Ryou, Fubuki, Honest, my friends. You are worth everything. Because you are there I can be bitterly grateful for the second chance I have.

Every day I go out into the world of sound and light, talk and move and breathe among the ones I do not know so that I can return to the darkness and the silence and not be irrevocably changed. It is necessary. It will never be easy.

Still, like this, I live on.

 

 

 


	3. in the future i can't see you, but i know you're still here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Backtracking a little to pre-canon. Based on [this post](http://inthefuture1.tumblr.com/post/140964933528)

**in the future[i can’t see you, but I know you’re still here](http://inthefuture1.tumblr.com/post/140964933528)**

(Fubuki // an audio recording preceded by three minutes of silence)

 

 

It's evening now, Yuusuke. Usually Ryou or Asuka will come with me here, but not today. Today it's just me. I like it like that. It's peaceful.

You like to be by yourself so much, so I used to think you would like it here, on the pier by the lighthouse where nobody ever goes. But you never came with me when I asked. There are a lot of clouds in the sky now, Yuusuke. The air's heavy. It's going to rain tonight.

You like rain a lot, don't you? When it stormed you would always put down what you were doing, and look outside the library windows at the grey skies. It was one of the very few things that made you smile.

Yuusuke, I.  
I miss you.

No one else remembers anything. They say things are exactly as they should be, everyone is accounted for and nothing is missing. Ryou is getting worried. But. Call it intuition. I know I'm not going crazy. I'm not knocking on the door of a room that was always empty.

A person called Fujiwara Yuusuke existed once. That person lived in Room 15b. I was that person's friend. I know all those things to be true, and so I can hold on to them without doubt.

But I think I'm forgetting. It's like the memories are actually trying to slip away, like a fish in the water. I remember where you live, but I don't remember what you look like. I remember where you sit in class, but I don't remember the cards you used, or your voice.

I don't want it to happen. I'm holding on as hard as I can. I record it down like this every day so I don't forget. But it keeps happening and I can't stop it. I play back what I said yesterday and it is all completely unfamiliar to me.

So I think, that has to be your wish, right? That everyone forgets you?

Well. Everyone already has. And very soon I will too.  So it's fine, Yuusuke, you don't have to worry. There won't be a next time. Tomorrow, if I don't remember any of this. I will throw this entire tape into the sea. It's convenient that it's so close by, isn't it?

I'll do it, even though I don't want to. Even though I don't like it at all. Because it's what _you_ wanted, and that matters more.

I just.  
I just wish I knew why.

 

 


End file.
